LOGO

The working group Global Social Policy belongs to the research field of political economy (comparative and international) and thus also to the field of comparative political science and follows an empirical-analytical approach. In the field of "Global Social Policy", the determining factors and effects of different configurations of public social policy and state dysfunctionalities are examined from an international comparative perspective. The focus here is on the microfoundation of the welfare state and taxation systems, i.e. the investigation of individual attitudes and preferences for social policy and taxes and individual behavior (e.g. voting behavior, tax compliance, tax avoidance/evasion). In addition, the working group is concerned with the influence of experiences of violence (criminal violence/organized violence) - a phenomenon of central importance for many societies in the Global South - on individual attitudes and political behavior and the influence of migration. Making use of standardized surveys and survey experiments, this research area investigates attitudes, preferences and political behavior in countries of the Global South, primarily Latin America, but also Sub-Saharan Africa and, in part, countries of the Global North (North America and Europe).

Research questions

The research group addresses the following research questions:

• How do state institutions and “state failure” affect individual demand for social policy and support for redistribution?
• How does the welfare state influence the development of the informal sector in countries of the Global South?
• What factors increase the likelihood of tax compliance and informality?
• How does globalization affect social policy demand and individual support for redistribution?
• How does migration influence social policy preferences?
• How does the experience of criminal violence affect attitudes towards the welfare state and security policy preferences?
• Why does social policy reduce poverty and inequality in some countries, while in others social policy tends to widen the gap between rich and poor?

Research methods

Methodologically, research conducted in this working groups makes use of quantitative methods such as:

• multivariate regression analyses
• multilevel models
• diff-in-diff
• techniques for analyzing survey experiments (e.g. conjoint, vignettes, list experiments)
• field experiments (randomized control trials)
• macro-comparative techniques such as panel and time series analyses

Research topics

The current research topics of the working group include:

• Varieties of Violence: The influence of individual experiences of violence on social policy preferences and conceptions of justice.
• Informal sector and labor market dualization in Latin America.
• The impact of migration and social remittances on social policy demand in countries of origin.
• Migration and attitudes towards LGBTQ+inclusive policies in Mexico.
• Criminal violence versus organized crime in Latin America.
• Embedded Liberalism: The impact of globalization on individual demand for the welfare state in the US.
• Deferred enforcement: The impact of deferred enforcement policies on individual payment behavior and informality in the energy sector in Uruguay.